


The Old and the New

by wyse_ink



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, Romance, Senior year, change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 17:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5752561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyse_ink/pseuds/wyse_ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things are changing too fast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Old and the New

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for a brief dream sequence.

     People had always talked about them—even their own families—but it had never really bothered Satsuki until now. She realized part of the blame laid with her. Calling him Dai-chan for so long had permanently given too many people the wrong idea, and it didn’t help that they spent so much time together as it was. She’d even wondered if Tetsuya wasn’t immune to this picture of them people painted. It wasn’t that Satsuki believed she was some sort of goddess who could have any guy she pleased. It’s just that she’d thought Tetsu was different; even understood that she and Daiki were just friends.  
     It hurt the way he never seemed to return her affections. He was kind of course, just as he always had been with her. More than ever, he felt far away, even though they still talked as much as they always had.  
     She glanced over at Aomine, who lied sprawled out the floor of her room. He wasn’t asleep, but his eyes flickered under his lids as if sleep wasn’t far off. She scoffed in annoyance.  
     “You do nothing,” she said, her tone neither curt nor friendly. “Why do you do nothing?” Aomine’s eyes opened and he rolled his head back to stare at her. He blinked, and his brow furrowed.  
     “I play basketball,” he said in his usual, bored tone.  
     “When you’re not playing basketball.” Satsuki put down the magazine she’d been reading and pulled her knees to her chest. It was a question she’d had for a long time, and one she’d once known the answer to. Back then, it’d been because he was simply bored. Hurt. Unchallenged. Back then, he’d even skipped basketball practice, only showing up to games and playing when the team needed him. That had all changed two years ago when they’d lost to Seirin, and for the most part, he’d returned to his usual self.  
     Except with her.  
     It was true that they still bickered half the time and she considered him her best friend the other half, but he’d barely talked to her lately. Instead, he did stuff like what he was doing now: just being around her in complete silence, without any reason whatsoever. She didn’t like it.  
     “My scholarship’s a done deal,” he said, turning his attention to the ceiling. “All that’s left is to graduate. What else am I supposed to do?”  
     “Not be a lifeless blob on my floor.” It came out a little more coolly than she’d meant it. He turned back to her and propped himself up on his elbow. The change in position made the fabric of his t-shirt sleeves pull tight across his supporting arm. He was obviously still finding the time to work out, she thought, wondering why she’d even noticed it. Maybe by the time he came over to her house, he was just too tired to do anything else. She changed the subject. “Have you heard from Tetsu-kun?”  
     Aomine frowned. “Why would I? He’s probably busy like us.” Satsuki stared at her friend blankly, wondering if he was even aware of how ridiculous he’d just sounded. She couldn’t even imagine Kuroko sitting around the house doing nothing on a day off, much less napping on her floor. She shook her head and picked up her magazine again.  
     “Never mind,” she told him. “Forget I said anything.”

 ***

     Satsuki really wished they would stop. It happened every time their families got together. It seemed worse on her end, she thought. She’d become increasingly convinced that her family—especially her mother and grandmother—were trying to embarrass her. Something would be said that maybe just a little too directed at Daiki. The topic of tonight’s pre-graduation party for them had recently shifted from the sports program of the university they’d both be attending to the two seniors themselves.  
     “I hope you’ll still look out for our Satsuki,” her grandmother was saying to him, eyeing her granddaughter warmly. “It’s such a big school and we worry.”  
     “I will,” he promised, his polite tone as alien to her as ever. Every time he was around her grandmother, it was like he became a different person. He sat up straight. He was polite. The image of him sprawled out on her dorm room floor staring at the ceiling filled her mind. She suppressed the urge to scowl.  
     “I’m glad she’ll have such a good friend there,” the old woman continued, taking a sip of her tea. Satsuki glanced over at him, immediately regretting it as soon as they made eye contact. Something inside her stirred and she felt a slight tinge of heat rising to her cheeks. _Just stop_.

***

     Something was definitely wrong with her. She tossed this way and that in her bed, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t get comfortable. She sat up, her long, pink hair falling around her face. She took the ends in her fingers and examined them in the faint moonlight that poured through her window. The ends were split and dry. Satsuki wondered how long they’d been like this. She’d always taken such good care of her hair, but she hadn’t thought about it for a while now. It needed trimming, she thought. It’d look more professional, more sophisticated at graduation. The image of her hair spilling underneath her graduation cap made her feel a pang in her chest.  
     It was really going to happen, she thought. In just a few weeks, she’d be packing up and moving her things to the university. Starting a new life, surrounded by strangers in a strange place. The thought scared her. She found herself glancing down at her floor, at the spot he always occupied. A small smile crossed her face, and she got out of bed, taking her pillow with her. She set it on the floor and lied down. Before she knew it, she was sound asleep.

***

     He cut class the next day. After passing by his classroom’s window and seeing his empty seat, she climbed to the rooftop and found him there. He was sitting up for a change, his back propped up against the barrier. He spun a basketball on his finger, and she realized he hadn’t even seen her. She strode over to him and sat down beside him in silence.  
     “I don’t like it,” he muttered finally. She turned to him, waiting for him to say more. He sighed. “It’s an all new team. All new players,” he finished, letting the basketball fall back into his hand. She understood.  
     “Yeah, but it also means a lot of new, strong opponents,” she told him. Something in his eye twinkled at that, but he remained solemn. “Which means you’ll have to work hard,” she continued matter-of-factly. “You’ll have to put a lot more into practice and a lot less into doing nothing.” She nudged him with her shoulder, ignoring the strange tingle down her arm that followed. Just for a moment, she thought she saw the corners of his lips threatening a smile. He stood up, bouncing the basketball once on the pavement. Satsuki lunged for the ball.  
     “Dai-chan, a teacher will hear you!” she said, tucking the ball under her arm. She didn’t even have time to react before he’d stolen it back, dribbling it once, twice against the roof. “You’re going to get us in trouble!” Something in his eyes made her smirk, despite her annoyance. He looked like an overgrown kid, just daring her to stop him.  
     She did. She reached for the ball, but before she could touch it, he’d passed it around his back into his other hand. She lunged again, but he easily evaded her, bouncing the ball off of his shoulder and letting it roll down his arm. It landed in the hand he held out right in front of her, and when she reached again, he raised it high above his head so that she had no hope of reaching it. A thought suddenly crossed her mind, one she’d never even considered using before. As infuriating as he was, this was Dai-chan—not some guy from an opposing team she could easily manipulate just by crossing her arms underneath her chest or strategically pulling her hair up into a ponytail at that minute. She felt her face flushing at the realization she’d even considered using such a tactic against him.  
     To make matters worse, she was sure he’d seen it. He tucked the ball under his arm, eyeing her for a minute before returning to the spot where she’d found him. Without another word, she started toward the ladder and climbed down.

***

     If there was one thing Satsuki was sure of, it was that girls her age shouldn’t be having such dreams. She was even more sure that had she been awake, such a thing would’ve never even crossed her mind. In no world where Satsuki Momoi was sane would she ever have seen someone like him in that way, and certainly not in a situation that was so incredibly compromising to her. But he was giving her that look, the ornery one she hated so much that just begged her to challenge him. Too vivid was the feeling of him against her, and much too warm. His hands wandered, but not once did she try to stop them.

***

     The next day, Satsuki was on edge. She’d been so horrified by the scene her mind had created in her sleep that she’d spent extra time making herself look as unlike herself as possible. She’d chosen to wear a sports bra, one that seemed to be the sole garment in the world that could flatten her more obvious feminine assets, her usual mint green hoodie, and jeans. She’d tied her hair back in a ponytail, not willing to mess with even that.  
     She busied herself with chores and other random activities to keep herself distracted. She’d nearly succeeded, too, until he showed up at her house that afternoon. She heard her mother greet him fondly, and immediately, Satsuki felt her face flush. She greeted him quickly, unable to even look at him as he entered the room. He didn’t say anything after that, instead complying with the small talk her mother was supplying. She used the opportunity to slip away into away into her room.

***

     Her isolation was short-lived when he joined her a few minutes later and took his usual spot on the floor. She said nothing, instead focusing as intently as she could on the magazine article in front of her. For an hour, they stayed like this. Neither of them said a thing. Neither of them moved. Finally, Aomine yawned and turned to her. She gripped the edges of the magazine tighter.  
     “You’ve been staring at that same page this whole time,” he said. She felt her face growing hot as she stared down at the page, realizing for the first time that what he’d said was true. She quickly turned the page. She heard him scoff, but didn’t acknowledge it. “You want to tell me what’s wrong?”  
     “Nothing’s wrong,” she retorted, turning the page again. She did it too roughly, and the page made a loud snapping sound. She examined it quickly, glad that it hadn’t torn. She caught him turning again in her peripheral vision, and she dared a glance. She followed his gaze to the giant teddy bear that she kept in the chair in her room. He’d gotten it for her, she remembered, thinking back to the evening she’d always considered a terrible one. A wave of guilt suddenly flooded through her, and she sighed. “I’m sorry,” she told him. “I’m just kind of stressed.”  
     He gave a quick ‘hm’ in response, but she sensed he didn’t believe her. It wasn’t a lie, she thought, thinking of everything to their rapidly-approaching graduation to the humiliating dream she’d had the night before. Why was it that everything had to be so stressful and confusing all at once? She set her magazine down and crawled closer to where he was. She lied down perpendicular to him and stretched her feet out before her, ignoring the blush that crept once again to her face. At this angle, he couldn’t see it anyway.  
     Satsuki took in the room around her. Soon, she’d be in an entirely new room, in a different city and all new people.  
     Well, with the exception of one.  
     Her blush subsided, and she took a deep breath. She was glad that they could still do things like this, just like they had when they were kids. Maybe it meant that things were still the same between them. Maybe she’d only imagined the difference. Maybe even fabricated it to take her mind off of everything else.  
      _Or maybe…_  
     She exhaled, pushing the thought aside. This was nice, she realized as she wiggled her shoulders to settle in. The room was a nice temperature, she realized, and there was something calming about it too. She leaned her head back and smiled as she took in his almost-sleeping form. “Dai-chan?”  
     “Hm.”  
     “I’m glad you’re coming with me.” And for the first time, she really was. His eyes opened and he turned to her, his expression unreadable. Satsuki didn’t mind. She’d known him long enough to know that look, no matter how good of a poker face it was. He was glad she was going with him, too.  
     He studied her for a bit, propping himself up on one elbow. His brow furrowed slightly, as if he were trying to piece together some kind of puzzle in his mind. His eyes drifted then, taking in her form and fixing on her lips. There was something in his eyes she hadn’t seen before, and it was something that made her heart skip a beat. Suddenly, she understood. She understood why he’d been keeping something of a distance. Understood why she’d been so confused.  
     Understood just how much she’d been kidding herself.  
     She reached up tentatively, her fingertips brushing his cheek. It was as though an electric current had been sent through her, her fingertips tingling from even the slight touch. When his lips met her own, they only confirmed what she finally knew. She kissed him back earnestly, thinking that if this was the first change of her new life, maybe change wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
